Wanting to finish the season out in an Aston, Pun returned to his fashionably liveried AMR for last weekend's event where he eventually claimed an overall P7 and P4 finishes during Saturday's wet finale - enough to conclude his runners up position in his AM+ class.

Working under the driver coaching of former British F3 racer Adderly Fong, the team now look to this months Macau Grand Prix event for their next action.

Photo credits – Uno Racing

Amongst a grid of twenty-two cars, reigning DTM Trophy Champion Heinemann Qualified P5 whilst Ortmann was in P8 – his best place to date but whilst Heinemann barged his way up to P3 going into turn one, Ortmann found himself being pushed wide in into the gravel to recover down in P13.

With each of the two races only being thirty minutes long, that gave Ortmann little time to clean up his tyres and recover the situation whilst Heinemann would spend much of his time heavily defending his podium position from the Championship leading #85 Mercedes.

In something of a ‘calm’ race by recent DTM Trophy standards, Heinemann would finish to take his second podium finish of the season whilst Ortmann would finish P10.

For Sunday’s race, the cooler track conditions suited by Astons much better as the #1 car claimed a front row start in P2 whilst Ortmann would start from a season’s best in P7 however, poor starts again from both drivers saw that effort count for nothing as both dropped into the pack in P3 and P13 respectively.

This time it was the #1 cars turn to be shouldered out into the gravel which in turn dropped him further back to P6 with neither car seemingly having the race pace to recover. Despite some last lap passes, the #1 car would finish P5 and the #19 car in P13.

These results leave Heinemann way off the Championship leaders in P6 with less than half the points of the leader whilst Ortmann shows just three points from his four races since taking over the #19 car from Patrik Matthiesen after the Monza debacle.

The next round will be at the Red Bull Ring in two week’s time.

Photo credits – DTM Trophy / Teams

The last round around the tri-oval and infield track at the Lausitzring ended badly for the PROsport team with Ortmann finishing the highest of the pair in P10 in race one after a late journey through the gravel trap after a Safety Car for Heinemann before the reigning DTM Champion claimed Pole position for race 2 only to be taken out at high speed (literally) by an out-of-control KTM X Box going into the tight turn 2 on the second lap.

That impact inflicted immediate race ending damage to the #1 car leaving Ortmann as the sole runner in that race where he claimed his first points of the season in P10. Recent photos seen of the #19 car testing ahead of this weekend’s round will have seen the car bearing a front grille denoted with the AGS Racing name – that we understand is simple because PROsport sauced some parts from the French team but hadn’t removed the previous team’s details in time for that test.

The DTM Trophy entry will again contact a Qualifying session ahead of each race on both Saturday and Sunday.

Photo credits – DTM Trophy / Team

The #7 Beechdean AMR Vantage GT3 of Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam would again speak of their car not quite performing just who they would otherwise expect it too, but none the less, they were still able to slot the car in eighth for the race.

As a sultry 20-degree ambient temperature welcomed the twenty three cars to the grid with all keeping one eye aloft just in case the warm, dry track surface would ever turn a bit wet how little did we know of what was about to take place as what happened next was quite frankly remarkable for sadly all the wrong reasons. 

With ten GT3 cars thundering into turn 1 at Redgates, there is always the possibility of contact – and there was as the second placed WPI Lamborghini got tapped around only for the #63 Barwell Lamborghini to slam unsighted into the #18’s rear quarter putting both cars out of the race with substantial damage.

Even before the race had had a chance to go back to green from that incident, unseen contact involving the #27 Newbridge AMR of Topham as the cars suddenly concertinaed behind the Safety Car rippled through the chasing GT4 field in an incident that would remove three other GT4’s from the days proceedings. Thankfully, nobody appeared to be injured but several cars (including the #27) were left at safe positions around the track as the race finally went back to green – but with seven cars less than what the Championship race had started with!!

With the early loss of two GT3 Pro-Am Championship leading cars, that left the door wide open for those remaining to ‘make hay’ and soon dairy farmer Howard was pushing his #7 car up to P5 as the race finally settled. He would leave his best moment of the race till just before his pit stop when he made the most of the #11 Paddock Motorsport Bentley GT3 ‘reluctance’ in handling the final corner in any state of optimum performance to push that car wide onto the start straight before undercutting the defending #11 going through Redgates for P4.

Having waited for their allotted pit stop window, it was now Jonny Adams turn to see how far he could get the #7 car up the timing screen, but it didn’t look easy for him at all through the corners as well (the team did suggest traction control issues) that allowed the #77 McLaren to again pressurise the car for position.

Having also leapfrogged the #1 Barwell Lamborghini due to their additional time penalty at their stop it was now a battle for the final step of the GT3 podium for Adam and his now obviously struggling Beechdean AMR leaving the AMR factory driver nearly half an hour to defend his position from now two obviously faster cars immediately behind.

With the final minutes ticking by and with Adam still under immense pressure from the #77 and #1 cars behind, his own track limits warning from Race Control just added to the cauldron inside that Vantage but survive he did to bring home the #7 car P3 overall and P2 in GT3 Pro-Am.

By the end of that two-hour race only twelve cars finished but despite that and by our reckoning, that provisional result takes Howard and Adam up to co-lead of the overall title table and second in GT3 Pro-Am as the Championship looks to Spa Francorchamps in two week’s time!!

And a hearty well done to Team ABBA Racing too - from a broken car on Saturday to a race winning car on Sunday!!!

Photo credits – Jacob Ebrey

These early results from a six-round season have Dorr and Wirth sitting in P6 within the overall Championship and likewise in their class but with a lesser points deficit to the class leader.

We understand that their AMR GT4 has recently been back at the Prodrive factory in the UK for some fine fettling and the team can also look forward to some direct AMR factory technical support at this weekend’s event as well.

Up to 3000 fans are permitted to attend each day’s events with both races again being streamed live via the Series social media channels.

Photo credits – ADAC GT4 Germany

The #15 Century car continues with their line up of David Holloway and Bradley Ellis as they have done all season so far after Adam Hatfield was unable to race from the opening round at Donington Park. Having claimed an opening P3 podium at Donington Park in early April, they have been tantalisingly close for further silverware at all of the subsequent rounds at Brands Hatch and Snetterton so they will be looking for something more in Cheshire.

They will be joined by the #82 Feathers Motorsport Aston of James Guess and a returning Tom Canning who again deputises for Darren Turner who won his first British GT race at the weekend with another customer team of his.

These guys had to wait nearly a week for their P2 finish in the final race at Snetterton at the start of the month to be changed to a class win after the original winner was found to be ‘contrary to Regulations’ but at least that helped to keep Guess’s trophy haul per round alive.

There still appears to be no sight or sound either from the Deranged AMR team after their dramatic arrival and achievements at the opening round from Donington Park!

This weekend features just two races on Saturday – a one hour race before lunch followed by a 40-minute race in the afternoon.

Photo credits - Teams